I listened to Taking Back Sunday’s entire discography the other day. You know what I took away from it? TBS is fucking awesome 🙂 I may have been late to this particular party, but am I ever glad I showed up.

In other news, I had pizza for dinner and now I can’t stop drinking water. Plus, my eczema has come back in full form (boo!). And I watched absolutely none of the Oscars, but I saw some pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch on the red carpet (yay!). (And autocorrect has learned Cumberbatch; this may be the proudest moment of my life.)

Taking Back Sunday announced their new album, Happiness Is, today. *Kermit flail* (Of course, that makes one major lineup change and two records since Brand New released Daisy, but who’s counting?) It’s coming out March 18, which is actually not that long from now 🙂

And, of course, that reminded me that Bayside has a new record, Cult, coming out February 18.

Plus, Manchester Orchestra has all but announced their next record (which I have a sneaking suspicion will be called Cope and released April 1).

Things are looking good, musically speaking. If I knew for certain that Brand New would have a new record this year it would be the best year ever!

You know what Brand New does have? New stuff in their online merch store. Who wants to buy me a grab bag? (I would’ve gotten one myself if I’d gone to one of their shows in December.) I know I said this last year, but I feel a new record coming from them. I just checked their website for the first time in forever and it is completely free of images; I take this as a good sign because it had had Daisy‘s wolf for years.

And I just talked myself into feeling optimistic with respect to a new Brand New record in 2014. Well done, Kristin.

I just got home from watching Bayside and Taking Back Sunday in St. Pete. (Transit played as well, but I saw exactly none of their set and I’m okay with that.) It was so much fun! I’m really glad I went.

For some weird reason, I was always kind of iffy about this show. I mean, I was stoked when it was announced, but I seriously considered not getting tickets (and not just for money-saving reasons). In the end, it was Bayside’s presence on the bill that decided me. I’ve really fallen in love with them in the past year but I hadn’t seen them live yet. Even so, I was undecided whether I’d actually go up until about 2 this afternoon. I dunno why; maybe my hermit tendencies are really taking over.

But, like I said, I’m glad I went. I’d forgotten how fun it is to get dressed “up” and go out somewhere fun with lots of people my age. Plus, fun rock show, yay! If I hadn’t gone to this show, Chicago would’ve been my only concert this year. Not that there’s anything wrong with that per se, but it would’ve bummed me out.

Wanna hear something weird? I think I saw someone I actually know at the show. I was so shocked that I didn’t say anything and then it was too late. So I just stayed in my little corner of the deck and scanned the crowd a lot. I didn’t see her again, but I did see Eddie Reyes from Taking Back Sunday wandering through the crowd, so that was cool.

The show was at an outdoor venue called Jannus Live. It was called Jannus Landing the last time I was there and it has clearly gone through a major renovation. It’s much nicer than I remember it being. Of course, it was only like 60 degrees tonight. But that just meant I got to wear layers (including a sweater) and boots, so it was actually kind of awesome 🙂

So thanks Bayside and Taking Back Sunday for an awesome night! And thanks whatever spirit inspired me to go.

Last year, Brand New’s first record, Your Favorite Weapon, celebrated its 10th anniversary. The band marked the occasion by re-releasing it with previously unreleased demos (most notably on vinyl, saving me from having to search Ebay for YFW on vinyl) and by performing the album in its entirety as part of their New Year’s Eve show at the House of Blues in Atlantic City.

Earlier this year, Taking Back Sunday’s first record, Tell All Your Friends, celebrated its 10th anniversary. I marked the occasion by writing a blog post. The band has finally gotten around to marking the occasion by announcing the #TAYF10 tour. (I don’t know if the tour name is supposed to have a hashtag or not, but I’m sticking with it because every reference I’ve seen thus far from the band has the hashtag.) The band will be playing TAYF in its entirety every night, which is too awesome for words. (And if it inspires Brand New to do the same thing with Deja Entendu next year, I won’t complain.)

This wasn’t what you’d call a well-kept secret. The band started hinting at the possibility of a Tell All Your Friends anniversary tour earlier this summer. And over the weekend I found out that Bayside is going to open for them, which made me even more excited for this tour (as if that’s even possible). The only thing I needed from today’s official announcement was the list of dates. When the first Florida date I saw was in Orlando, I despaired of a Tampa/St. Pete show. My despair grew when the next date listed was in Fort Lauderdale. But, lo and behold, they are playing Jannus Landing in St. Pete! Woohoo!

I will be attending the St. Pete show. This is a thing I have to see; YouTube videos will not be sufficient. To that end, I’ve decided that I’m going to give up going to the movies for a while. After all, which is more important to see in a theater: The Dark Knight Rises or one of my favorite bands performing one of my all-time favorite records?

And I’m still holding out hope that Taking Back Sunday will re-release Tell All Your Friends on vinyl to celebrate the anniversary. (This can also be said for Deja Entendu, but that doesn’t turn 10 until next year.)

At first I was just like, “yay TBS!” But then I heard the line I used for today’s subject and started thinking.

I’ve always liked that line. In fact, it’s on the short list of song quotes I would consider getting tattooed on my body (probably on my arm). I’m not kidding, by the by. I have a list of potential quotes for tattoos on my iPhone/iPad. If I ever did it, though, I’d probably go with “You know that you are not alone” from Brand New’s “Play Crack the Sky.” But I digress wildly.

What struck me today is that I actually took that advice (as much as I was able) a year and a half ago. In a perfect world, starting it all over would have entailed moving. But then again, moving back to the place I used to live isn’t exactly starting it all over either, is it? Regardless, I quit my job so I could focus on getting into grad school and then on grad school itself. If that’s not dropping everything, then I don’t know what is.

I don’t remember listening to “This Photograph Is Proof” a lot around the time that I decided to quit my job, but I may have been. I’ve always liked the song. I wonder if it was subconsciously influencing my decision. I remember being so miserable I could barely stand it and having a little voice in my head encouraging me to quit. Maybe that little voice belonged to Adam Lazzara. Doubtful, but interesting to think about.

I just realized that I haven’t told the story of why I quit my last job on this here blog. Well, I will not tell it today (I’m sleepy). But perhaps I shall share it some time.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t say yay, Philly sports! Phillies won! Sixers won! These are lovely and wonderful things 🙂

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of Taking Back Sunday’s first record, Tell All Your Friends. Part of me wishes I could say that makes me feel old, but I can’t. Not really. It would be one thing if I had purchased TAYF when it came out, but it feels disingenuous to say that about a record that I bought five years ago (no matter how old the record itself is).

Even though I completely slept on Tell All Your Friends (and Taking Back Sunday), I fell in love with this record once I finally bought it. It is one of my go-to, comfort food records and has the iTunes play count to prove it 🙂 I was tempted to do nothing but quote songs in this post, but I decided to refrain.

I don’t remember how exactly I found out that TAYF was released on March 26, 2002 (or why, for that matter), but I did. I have a little reminder in iCal and everything. Apparently I’m not the only person who knows the date, either. #TellAllYourFriends was a trending topic on Twitter today. The best part of that were the couple of tweets I saw from people who used that hashtag in a non-TBS context, most likely because they didn’t know why people had started it in the first place. It was quite amusing.

I’ve been celebrating the anniversary by listening to Tell All Your Friends pretty much exclusively. (I have no qualms about listening to my favorite records on repeat. I’m pretty much positive that I will never get sick of TAYF.) If I’d been thinking, I would’ve watched some of the videos from that record as well. Like the “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)” video. (And not just because “Cute Without the ‘E'” is my favorite Taking Back Sunday song and video.)

Ironically, the version on YouTube is uncensored but the version I bought from iTunes five years ago is censored. (Heaven forbid I hear the word “gun” in song lyrics. Blah.)

So, congratulations to Adam, John, Mark, Shaun, and Eddie. Ten years later and it’s still an amazing album (and, even more importantly, the band is still going strong).

If you’ve never listened to Tell All Your Friends, do yourself a favor and listen to it. (It’s available on Spotify.) I’m not promising that it will change your life, but it’s a damn good record and everyone should listen to it at least once.

I love Music Choice. It is the thing you are most likely to find on my TV at any given moment (provided my TV is on). I’m not a big fan of silence and music is my go-to “noise” unless I’m going to bed (in which case I like to listen to movies I’ve watched a thousand times). HGTV is my go-to network when there’s nothing worth watching, but HGTV can be too distracting (especially my beloved House Hunters and House Hunters International) when I want to read or wash dishes or do something where I can’t really look at the TV every five seconds.

Now, as much as I love Music Choice, I am sometimes flabbergasted by it. Like the fact that Music Choice’s library only has two pictures of and maybe five facts about Brand New. Or that Music Choice never seems to get any new facts. For instance, almost every time I see (hear? experience?) a Taking Back Sunday song on Music Choice I am told that Taking Back Sunday consists of Adam Lazzara, Fred Mascherino, Eddie Reyes, Mark O’Connell, and Matthew Rubano. Which was true in 2007. And then there are the new bands I’ve never heard of that seem to have sent full bios to Music Choice. I can’t think of any examples, but it has definitely happened.

All of these are strange, and a little depressing. (Poorly edited things make me sad. I have issues.) But none of them really compare to what I witnessed this evening: Music Choice consistently screwing up the frontman of Jack’s Mannequin’s name. (For the record, his name is Andrew McMahon. Andrew. And he is one of my favorite people even though I’ve never met him.) I was just about to turn off the TV when I heard the opening chords of “The Mixed Tape” and knew the TV would stay on for another three minutes. The facts that accompanied the song kept referring to “Adam.” I figured there was no way Music Choice would consistently screw up the name of the singer/songwriter/pianist/mouthpiece of the band, so there must be some other guy named Adam in the band. After all, I know that the Jack’s Mannequin lineup has gone through some changes in the past year, there could be an Adam. But then I read a “fact” that said the documentary Dear Jack is about Adam’s fight with leukemia. (Or some such. I don’t remember the exact words.) But here’s the thing, the documentary Dear Jack is about Andrew’s fight with leukemia. (Trust me. I own it.) It was now crystal clear that the “Adam” referenced in all the other “facts” was Andrew. It bothers me that they would get something that basic wrong. Especially since Andrew McMahon recently did a mini acoustic performance for Music Choice.

It’s funny, I was going to blog about watching a Sixers game (by choice) for the first time in years, but then Music Choice saddened and angered me all at the same time. Or possibly about Jeopardy! (particularly tonight’s episode). Will those posts ever be written now? Who knows? At least I didn’t try to jam it all into one post. This Music Choice rant is wordy.